Mary Coverdale
Mary Coverdale was the General Secretary of the Edinburgh Council for Social Service from 1952 until the 1970s. The Edinburgh Council for Social Service (formerly the City of Edinburgh Council for Social Services) promoted the co-operation of voluntary organisations involved in providing social work services across the city of Edinburgh, including the NVA (Eastern Branch) and then Guild of Service. As such, it played an important role in developing and supporting the networks which existing between so many of these organisations. We see an example of the connections between these organisations in 1955 when Mary Coverdale was a guest speaker at the Annual General Meeting of the Guild of Service (Anon, 1955).
Mary Coverdale came from County Durham. She had worked as a Labour Manager in an Ordnance Factory, before undertaking a Diploma in Public and Social Administration in Oxford. Following this she worked as a Personnel Supervisor in Wills factory (a tobacco company) in Bristol, then as a Welfare Officer in Peterlee, and then in a Settlement in Spennymoor. She then moved to Edinburgh in 1952 and took over the role of General Secretary of the Edinburgh Council for Social Service from Anne Ashley, who was retiring in October 1953 (Anon, 1954; Edinburgh Council of Social Service, 1953).
As well as working for the Edinburgh Council for Social Service Mary Coverdale was involved with the Salvation Army (Salvation Army, 1979), the Edinburgh Soroptomist Club as Vice-President from 1961 and then President from 1966 (Soroptimist International of Edinburgh, 2008) and latterly Senior Development Officer for Age Concern Scotland (Anon, 1980).
References:
Anon (1954) Help for Korea: Parcels from Edinburgh, The Scotsman, 15th February, page 8.
Anon (1955) General Notices, The Scotsman, 15th March, page 1.
Anon (1980) Acredale House, West Lothian Courier, 11th January, page 6.
Edinburgh Council of Social Service (1953) Annual Report 1952-52. Edinburgh: Edinburgh Council of Social Service.
The Salvation Army (1979) A Salvation Centenary: The Salvation Army – Scotland Territory 1879-1979. St Albans: The Campfield Press.